For the second consecutive year, India has been termed as ‘partly free’ country in terms of democracy and free society, according to the annual report. The report titled “Freedom in the World 2022 – The Global Expansion of Authoritarian Rule” by Freedom House, a US-based NGO that ‘assesses political rights and civil liberties. India scored 66 out of 100 in 2022. The country had scored 67 in 2021. India was a free country till 2020 when its score was 71.
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In Internet freedom:
- India scored a mere 49, the same score as that of Uganda. Here too, the score has come down. The reasons are – the increasing internet shutdowns by governments, low internet penetration and poor infrastructure.
- India’s freedom scores are similar to that of Bolivia, Hungary and Albania. The countries that have scored the worst include South Sudan, Syria, Tibet, Turkmenistan, Eritrea and North Korea.
- Sixty-nine countries are currently not free worldwide. This makes the situation worse than in 1973 when only 63 countries were not free.
- Apart from the worst scorers, the list also includes Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Thailand and Qatar. This is an increase from the last year when only 54 countries were not free.
- At the same time, there is an increase in free countries from 82 to 85, compared to 2021. In this category, Finland, Sweden and Norway have achieved a perfect 100, besides New Zealand, Canada, Uruguay, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Ireland and Denmark.
Key points of the reports
- In 2022, 85 countries were termed as free, 56 as partly free and 69 as not free.
- The Freedom in the World 2022 evaluated the state of freedom in 195 countries and 15 territories during the calendar year 2021.
About the report:
The report used 25 indicators, grouped into the categories of political rights and civil liberties to determine whether the country or territory has an overall status of Free, Partly Free, or Not Free. The report is published every year since 1973 to assess the political rights and civil liberties of a country through a series of surveys and analyses.